THE WISE.
76.
If thou see a man of wisdom,
Like a guide to treasure-trove,
Pointing out thy faults and failings,
Follow him; such company
Brings prosperity, not woe.
77.
He who gives advice and teaching,
And restrains thy feet from wrong,
By the righteous is beloved,
But the wicked love him not.
78.
Have no fellowship with evil;
Make no friends among the vile;
Make the virtuous thy companions;
Follow thou the Perfect Men.
79.
They who drink the Good Norm's nectar
Live in bliss with tranquil mind;
In the Norm by saints expounded
Wise men ever take delight.
80.
Irrigators guide the waters,
Fletchers straighten out the shaft,
Carpenters unwarp the timber,
But the wise subdue themselves.
81.
As the solid rock for ever
Rests unshaken by the wind,
Wise men rest unwavering,
Troubled not by praise or blame.
82.
As a deep clear pool of water
Lies unruffled by the wind,
To the Good Norm listening
Wise men reach tranquillity.
83.
When the good men go about,
Sensual babble is not theirs;
They, when touched by pain or pleasure,
Show a calm untroubled face.
84.
Not for self and not for others
Do they long for sons or wealth,
Not for rule, nor by injustice
Self-advancement to attain;
Righteous, wise and just are they.
85.
Few are they among us mortals
Who have reached the further shore
Over yonder. But we others
On this side fare up and down.
86.
They who hold fast to the teaching
Of the Norm expounded well
They shall reach the shore and pass
The realm of Death so hard to cross.
87-8.
Giving up the state of darkness,
Let the wise embrace the pure;
Giving up home for the homeless
Loneliness, where joys are rare,
Let him long for bliss unbounded
Casting all desire aside,
Owning naught, and, firm in wisdom,
Cleanse his heart from passion's stain.
89.
They whose mind is rightly tempered
In the Wisdom's seven ways,[1]
Who have left desire behind them,
Void of clinging, they rejoicing
Passionless and all-resplendent,
Even in this world are freed.[2]
[1] The seven limbs of the Bodhi are:—Sati, concentration; Dhammavicaya, examination of mental processes or of nature; Viriya, energy; Pīti, zest; Passaddhi, calmness; Samādhi, mental balance; Uṗekhā, equanimity.
[2] Parinibbutā, let free from rebirth by having attained the state of Nibbāna, "gone out."
CHAPTER SEVEN.
THE ARAHAT—THE WORTHY.
90.
He for whom life's journey's over, free from sorrow, free from pain
Who has all the knots unfastened, suffering knows not again.
91.
Household life for them no joys hath; striving and intent in mind
As the swan deserts the marshes, every home they leave behind.
92.
They who gather up no treasure, feeding on the food that's known,[1]
They who range in mind the Void, the unconditioned formless Space,
As the bird's path in the ether, so their ways are hard to trace.
93.
They whose taints are all evanished, independent of support,
They who range in mind the Void, the unconditioned, formless Space,
As the bird's path in the ether, so their tracks are hard to trace.
94.
He whose senses now are tranquil, like a horse by trainer tamed
(Pride struck off, the taints[2] evanished), to the very gods is famed.[3]
95.
Like the solid ground unshaken, like the threshold of a door,
Like a pool by mud unsullied, such a saint is born no more.
96.
Calm the mind of such a being, calm his thoughts and words and deeds,
Set free by the perfect knowledge, liberated from life's needs.
97.
Self-dependent, self-sufficing, knower of the Uncreate[4]
Who hath loosed the bonds of action, from the chain of births set free,
All desires are fallen from him, noblest of all beings he.
98.
In the village or the forest, on the water or the ground,
Where the worthy ones are dwelling, there the earth's delights are found.
99.
Ah! delightful are the forests! where the worldling finds no joy,
There the passionless find pleasure, whom the senses do not cloy.